Henry Abbott

As a student uninvolved with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), I have been appalled by the recent incidents on campus. I feel as though my opinion is being drowned out by a vocal minority. To quote President Zaki’s email from Monday, I, like others in the community, have felt “unwelcome, intimidated, and unsafe.” When a group shuts down a 24-hour building, I certainly feel unwelcome. When a group makes vague threats instead of engaging in dialogue, I feel intimidated. And when a group spends time antagonizing my peers and widening divisions on campus, I don’t feel safe around them. The thing is, I actually supported this group until the events of the encampment. A group I once thought highly of has shown its true colors, and I can no longer support them. The group I am talking about, of course, is the administration of Bowdoin College.

The administration’s response to this past week’s encampment has been frustrating but has revealed where its priorities lie. Why the administration must shut down a 24-hour building because students were peacefully protesting in it baffles me. Those in the encampment sang, made art, danced, played cards, watched movies, did schoolwork and slept. I have done every single one of those things (including sleeping) in Smith Union prior to this weekend. I do not blame SJP for the Union’s closure—I blame the Bowdoin administration. It could have stayed open, and the students peacefully protesting could have remained. While I know Bowdoin gets trigger-happy when it comes to shutting down unions (zing), this was a calculated decision to shift the blame and turn the student body against our peers in the encampment.

President Zaki said in her commencement address to students last year that “[their] activism over a wide range of issues has pushed us to have difficult conversations, as we imagine and strive for a better world.” When it came time for administrators to have those conversations with protesters, it was clear that they didn’t want to practice what they preached. In one instance, a dean who entered the encampment couldn’t name two of the four clauses of the “Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum.” To my knowledge, students have had countless “difficult conversations” with administrators before the events of this weekend, but Bowdoin’s response to the encampment shows that they were never really listening to begin with.

How am I supposed to respect a school that touts the “common good” as a core value, yet continues to abandon it? My question is a genuine one—I truly love Bowdoin. This is the only school I could afford to go to, and I am eternally grateful for the hundreds of people who have helped me get here. I have discovered so many passions and could not imagine myself anywhere else. This is why I am so disturbed by our administration’s actions this week. I don’t recognize the Bowdoin that I fell in love with, that I want to go to, that I was inspired by. I decided to study what I was passionate about because of the “common good.” If I had known that the “common good” was just a marketing strategy, I would have gone into PR or advertising—it seems like that’s what Bowdoin does best.

I do not write this as an immature “middle finger” to the big, bad, evil admin. I write this out of frustration and a true belief (or hope) that Bowdoin still is a truly good institution. To any members of the administration reading this: I am open to chatting or grabbing a meal to discuss this further. I get most of my meals with my roommate and best friend—unfortunately, they were recently suspended from Bowdoin College, so my schedule has opened up significantly.

Patrick Burke Sullivan is a Member of the Class of 2026